Love and War
by candelight
Summary: Roxas gets seriously hurt. Axel has to save his best friend-and confront his feelings-before it's too late!


"You're too soft, Roxy."

"Oh, come on, Ax!"

"If Xemnas finds out, I don't think he's going to approve."

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him, right? He didn't say we couldn't save anyone."

Axel grinned. "Lord, Roxy-I love loopholes."

The two had been sent to a very, very dangerous world indeed to scout and report how many hearts could be expected from the Heartless colonies.

Sadly, there weren't very many, but before the two could turn back to the World That Never Was, a small boy, crying and panting, had been running away from a group of armed soldiers.

The little boy had no time to do more then take in their bizarre appearances before the soldiers had caught up.

"Ah! There he is, men!"

"Ready?.....FIRE!"

The little boy had cowered, tears falling freely. Roxas scowled.

"Chasing after little kids in the dead of night with what, a dozen of your men? Really honorable."

Axel's face cracked into an evil grin.

"That it is, Roxy…that it is…."

"FIRE!"

And a torrent of bullets rained down on them. Roxas leapt forward and made an odd, snatching motion.

The soliders stared at Roxas's wincing figure in horror.

Roxas had caught the bullets with his bare palm, his hand smoking slightly as he dropped the steaming bullets to the ground.

It takes very special weapons to harm a member of the organization.

The child peeped behind clenched, shaking fingers, and gasped.

"What the-he's some kind of monster!"

"Oh, HE'S the monster?" scowled Axel, stepping forward with a ferocious scowl, no longer smiling as a twin pair of flaming chakra appeared in his dark, gloved hands.

"Sorry! He's not the one shooting at little boys, you know."

The boy gasped. Roxas winced, pressing a hand slowly to his chest.

"It's okay, now," he said gently, to the little boy who was gawking at him with red eyes.

"You should hurry along home, now."

The boy merely continued to stare at him for a moment, then gulped and hurried off, yelling, behind his back-

"T-thank you!"

The soldiers backed off a bit, muttering uneasily to themselves. Roxas staggered, and keeled onto the ground on one knee.

"Roxy!" exclaimed Axel. Then, he rounded on the now terrified looking soldiers with emerald fire in his orbs.

"Not one of you will escape alive."

The entire fleet turned, mad in their panic, as flames began to engulf them….

"Heh. They weren't so tough. That only took seconds. I can't believe they managed to bang you up like that, though."

Roxas just nodded, still staring at his hands, looking troubled.

"They used a type of acid that organization members use regularly. I guess that explains the burns…"

Axel frowned and took Roxas by the wrist, trying not to turn redder then his hair.

"Heh. They do look kind of bad. Too bad you're not me-it takes a lot to burn me up."

Roxas grimaced.

"Sorry, sorry. Let's just go back to home base for now. Geez-it burned straight through your gloves…..we'll report, and then we can relax for awhile."

Roxas smiled. Axel blinked.

The two of them were most often sent on missions together. Occasionally, Xemnas would send Demyx or Larxene along-and who wanted THAT?-but, practically all the time, number eight and thirteen were together.

Even outside of mission zones, in their free time, if you were looking for a red head with green eyes and a sarcastic nature, you'd find a slightly smaller light blond boy with piercing, penetrating blue eyes.

And, if you were looking for the keyblade master, you'd find a chakra master lazily strolling beside him, chatting.

"Who's your shadow, Roxas?" Larxene once sneered at them from the shadows.

So, when she was practicing her lightning strikes with her "talons," for SOME reason, a bucket of icy water fell on her head. Spluttering and furious, she pulled the bucket off, growling…

And, as she had been wet, she electrocuted herself.

While she was feebly stirring on the ground with blond hair EVERWHERE-in fact-two strands were so permanently statified, they remained up no matter what you did with them-

Two boys were shaking with wild laughter up on the rooftops.

Axel never knew he could laugh so much, let alone laugh. But it had been so overwhelmingly funny, that the two could only roll around with helpless giggles.

"Nice SHOT, Ax!"

Axel had to cease giggling for a moment. Ax? No one had ever called him that, before.

"Fair enough, Roxy."

* * * * * * 8

Axel flicked his wrist.

A swirling portal, forged from the power of darkness, opened up, dark matter floating lazily in every which way.

"You going to be okay?"

"Yeah, I-AXEL!"

Roxas's face was now alight with panic and frustration.

"AXEL! GET OUT OF-"

Axel turned, about to help Roxas through, looking dumbfounded.

Then, he stopped dead.

A thousand heartless were staring at them, with beady, beady eyes.

And they looked ready to attack.

Axel muttered something that sounded like a very unkind thing about someone's mother.

Roxas staggered, looking pale.

"Ax-you got to get away-they're everwhere-"

Axel turned with a half scowl, half wicked grin.

"Will you quit muttering crap like that? You're embarrassing me. This just means our

Little…mission simply got more…….interesting. And you know how I like interesting

Things, Roxy."

Roxas smiled, then turned to face the heartless hordes, back to back with Axel. Axel

Frowned.

"Hey-Roxy-you going to be okay?"

"Yeah, I-"

There was no time to talk, now.

The battle began.


End file.
